Outlines of the History of Art; Classic (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 Excerpt: ... acquire the character of highly romantic tales under his hand, often with the added charm of a deep mysteriousness in the representation. There is in the Dresden Gallery a Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, where the patriarchal environments of the story are suggested in landscape, to which the rest of the picture is subordinated. This picture is with justice, however, now no longer credited to Giorgione. There is a Storm at Sea in the Academy at Venice, which, although injured by restorations, illustrates the artist's fantastic imagination in its most striking phase. It is also disputed whether this is Giorgione's or not. This poetical bias is seen even in his portraits, which are distinguished by lofty conception and vivid coloring, whereby the mere portrait is raised to a charming and distinctive genre-picture. This is the case with the superb painting in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, which goes by the name of the Concert (Fig. 432). A priest is playing upon the harpsichord. Behind him is a youth, with a stately hat and feather. He turns his head toward another priest, who stands at his side, with a 'cello in one hand, while he lays the other upon the musician's shoulder. The composition of the figures is so replete with historical reality, that a repetition of the same subject in the Doria Palace in Rome is naTvely enough entitled the Portraits of Luther, Melancthon, and Katharine of Bora. We have already referred to the sole well-known scholar of Giorgione, Sebastian del Piombo; but we will also give place here to the name of an artist who carried out the method of that great master in his own independent manner, although, in the beginning of his career, he was a follower of Giovanni Bellini.1 Jacopo Palma Vecchio, or the Elder, without having the austere ...